COMMONSENSE INTELLIGENCE AND ITS BIASES
epistemology: the key to ethics

preface

The bias in common sense is that unwillingness in intelligence that disregards exploring any consideration whose inferences do not seem to support our perspective. But will instead construct perceptions which are more conducive to personal interests. This unwillingness to develop broader understanding will lead to short-sighted deficient solutions that create problems.

COMMON SENSE

Common Sense is a practical insightfulness dealing with concrete situations.
Commonsense Intelligence creatively explores the situation.
Commonsense Intuition forms a resulting insight from that situation.
Common Sense surveys our situation => to find these relevant perceptions:

1. Critical Awareness => Estimated realities.

2. Open Judgments => Accurate expectations.

3. Explore Possibilities => Potential solutions.

4. Interpersonal Sharing => Perceptual inferences.

5. Instrumental Experimentation => Positive consequences.

The choice of common sense intelligence not to explore a situation is the result of a biased attitude restricting perceptions and perceptiveness. Biases are *habits* in intuition, affecting one's autonomy.

WHEN IS COMMON SENSE INTELLIGENCE BIASED ?

1. A Critical Capacity Discerns Realities.
Antithetical Bias . . . the obtuse
Negative criticalness challenges developing alternative approaches, and rejects the opportunity to elaborate on implications, by saying: Your ideas and perceptions do not have any value and thinking about them is a waste of time. Destructive criticism offers only a false sense of superiority and instant achievement. It makes assessments, without seeking attunement or verifying perceptions.
* Be willing . . .
Listen. An open mind deliberately seeks and appreciates new ideas, willing to explore and 'experiment' with different ways of looking at things. Evaluate, be constructive then restate perceptions.

2. Experience and Experiment Establishes and Validates Probabilities.
Mental Bias . . . the obscurantist
The more rational and well argued an explanation seems, the less one thinks that there is a need to further examine the situation. This bias is that a person becomes trapped into a particular view in the effort to support one's objective. It will creatively scrutinize, interpret, and 'explain' instead verifying speculations, by further examining the situation, and testing what 'accurately' happens.
* Be reasonable . . .
Clarify our understanding. Realistic understanding not only will conceive of all that may be possible, but will willingly verify the likelihood of any particular speculation.

3. Common Sense surveys a situation for insights that translate into action.
General Bias . . . the merely routine mind
Short-sighted practicality says react decisively and deal with this situation. Once it is dealt with, make it work; further thinking is superfluous. Get on with life and living; there are more important things. Complacent oversight can overlook 'details' that may lead to further insights.
* Be intelligent . . .
Resolve concerns. Intelligence can direct and focus its thinking and, by being speculative and projective, can create challenging situations to find out how and why things work.  Find quality solutions.

4. Social Relationships Seek to Influence Speculations and Perception of Values.
Interpersonal Bias . . . champions over and inhibits another's status, intelligence, or ego.
The social context and its implications motivate how we view things. By shifting our speculations and reframing our values, we can construct (emotional) perceptions so as to support our (ego) interests... Arrogance seeks to manifest (its) superiority, is always unquestionably right, and enjoys being dominating. An unbiased attitude is not supercilious, narrow-minded, or egoistic.
* Recognize and sincerely respect the virtues of others . . . Welcome (the wisdom of) enlightenment:
Innovation investigates and intuits the situation's dynamics, works to clarify explanatory insights, examining possible solutions, and focuses on to assess and satisfactorily resolve each concern.

5. Think Through and Take Control of Opportunities and Potentials.
Emotional Bias . . . expresses itself, when feeling takes the lead guiding perceptions.
Emotional reactions can trigger and drive our thinking, channeling our perceptions, and restricting one's flexibility. This is rigid narrow-minded thinking, instead of being expansive by considering and exploring more of the possible.
* Develop broader understanding of our objective . . . Explore possible alternative perspectives:
Realize there are other ways we can experience the situation... A broader inquiry should lead to better insights and decisions... Clarify and evaluate all possible choices, then choose which we will value... Describe the intent, scrutinizing (other) strategy... Understand what the problem behaviors are, and then alter their reinforcing expectations. Pinpoint and then reinforce the desired behavior by experimenting.

Common Sense adapts to our perception of reality. Identify and correct the biases in thinking to ultimately resolve conflict and promote a broader understanding.


To develop a rational society, we need a viable unbiased common sense. Because of the vital importance for this wisdom, the content of this paper may be used in any way that you wish.
... Brian Thies (visionary philosopher - web.tickle.com - 2005)

INTUITIVE DEFINITIONS AS A SUMMARY

Biased Common Sense ... short sighted solutions ... neglected concerns and unresolved considerations ...
Commonsense Intelligence ... surveys the situation ... seeks to form and examine insights ...
Common Sense ... insight into the situation ... practical insightfulness ...
Bias ... chooses to not explore the situation ... restricts perceptions and perceptiveness ...
Biased Intelligence ... restricts inquiry ... unwilling to conceive of another perspective ...
Intellectual Bias ... rational and well argued ... explains and rationalizes instead of investigating the situation ...
Unbiased Intelligence ... identifies and corrects the biases in thinking ... develops understanding wisdom ...
Intelligence ... can direct and focus its thinking ... willing to find out how and why things work ...
Unbiased Thinking ... non-judgmental ... can construct different solutions ...
Biased Thinking ... Arrogant ... supercilious, narrow-minded, egoistic ...
Intuition ... an inner sense of the situation's dynamics ... insight into a possible solution ...
Insight ... speculative explanatory understanding ... the working hypothesis that is to be verified ...
Basic Sin ... restricts the desire to understand correctly - in favor of an incompleteness in the understanding ... the intentional disregard for better insight ...
Rationality ... clarifies our choices and considerations ... seeking insight and yielding to reasonableness ...
Good Will ... is willingness to find value in other perspectives ... is dedicated to a better understanding ...
Higher Perspective ... searches for solutions ... develops good will ...
Objectivity ... voluntarily overcomes personal bias to follow the reasonablemess of intelligence ... selfless inquiring to understand correctly.


APPENDIX

Psychological themes represented in this paper:
1. Repressive Constructive Censorship
2. Reality Testing
3. Action Plans
4. Influences from the emotions and purposes of others, as individuals or as groups
5. Intentionality


SCENARIO:
The boss asks an employee to take a package to the Post Office. There is a horrible storm outside.
1. First, there is an awareness of 'all' the existing realities.
2. And various ensuing expectations.
3. Reflect and consider possible scenarios and solutions.
4. Influences from the boss, coworkers, and friends.
5. Finally, the pursuit of a course of action.


4. Interpersonal Influences:
To pursue and develop a speculative aspect of the situation, or to avert and repress this reality
--------> influences #(1) our perception.
To represent or misrepresent the emerging situation, and share 'insights' interpreting a situation into a perception
--------> influences #(2) speculations.
Deciding which concerns are important, and which to disregard
--------> influences #(3) choice of solutions.
Relate to Lonergan's Escapes from Rational Self-Consciousness:
(1) Avoiding unwanted intuition;
(2) Rationalization by (a) misrepresentation or (b) explanatory interpretations;
(3) Renunciation of moral responsibility.


Skewing Observations to Fit an Agenda:
Manipulate others into believing a deception.
Trim unwanted observations.
Invent forged data.
Select only data that fit the hypothesis.
- From Charles Babbage (1791-1871) on hoaxing, trimming, forging, and cooking data.


Arrogance makes questioning its 'truths' unwelcome:
Arrogance's assertive thinking may have no problem with deception.
So, misrepresentations of truth may well be one of the problems that we then have to deal with.
Arrogance focuses its 'insights' and considerations, while making it more difficult to look for alternatives.
But since, as per Lonergan, an insight (of understanding) is merely a 'hypothetical speculation' - unless it is verified.
Intelligence realizes that the more rational and coherent 'its' arguments seem, then the less one will feel a need to explore the situation further and look for 'insights' that may lead to a more balanced viewpoint.
Arrogance makes unwelcome, by striving to oppose, any open speculative explorations that may lead to questions that could modiify (its 'rationalizations' that portray) its 'truths'.


5. The dramatic emotional behavior of the mistaken believer
excludes and restricts developing these potentials:

Experientially conscious - How we experience things.
Intellectually conscious - What we understand to be true.
Rationally conscious - Perception of available choices.
Rationally self-conscious - Scrutinizes motivation. 
Self-actualization - Organizes and Evaluates performance.
Where to start? Be willing... deliberately seek new ideas and different ways of looking at things.
Become a thinker: The endeavor of seeking a better understanding, by visualizing the principles involved, and deliberately searching for insights to construct other solutions, will develop in our willingness the desire to make our doing consistent with our knowing.
A Personal bias may make other insights unwelcome.


Three Common Approaches to Managing Life Issues:
By inspirations, and rationalizations.
By setting up goal-directed objectives, and sub-objectives.
By following directives, rules, and set procedures.


Arrogance - Doing the devil's work. TheTemptation - Luke Chapter lV:
Jesus was led by the Spirit about the desert for forty days.
* Arrogance needs to have unquestionable ideas about the state of one's affairs and surroundings. And the devil said to him, "If thou art the Son of God, command that this stone become a loaf of bread." And Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Not by bread alone shall man live, but by every word of God.'" Do not be narrow-minded in your perspective.
* Arrogance seeks satisfaction in manifestations of its superiority. In a moment of time, the devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and said, "To thee I will give all this power and their glory; for to me they have been delivered and to whomever I will give them. Therefore if thou wilt worship me, the whole shall be thine." And Jesus answered and said to him, "It is written, 'The Lord thy God shalt thou worship, and him only shalt thou serve.'" Do not become supercilious with power and glory and turn your back on God.
* Arrogance enjoys being domineering, because it knows what the correct conduct is to be. The devil set Jesus on the pinacle of the temple in Jerusalem and said, "If thou art the Son of God, throw thyself down from here for it is written, 'He will give his angels charge concerning thee, to preserve thee, and upon their hands they shall bear thee up lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.'" And Jesus answered and said to him, "It is said, 'Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.'" Proposals which serve only one's own egoistic desires have little regard for God's interests. Scrutinize the motive: Suppose Jesus throws himself down and kills himself. Then the devil might say: Hey God, how come you didn't save this fool.


Utilize these Conversation Speech Acts freely with dignity and respect:
Expressions of Sentiment < --- > Assessments (of the Situation)
Make Assertions and Guesses < --- > Clarifying Speculations into a Conjecture
Declarations of Intent < --- > Reacting to the (emotional) Consequences
Inquiring/Requesting infers Seeking a possible/personal 'Solution'
Offering/Promising suggests Pursuing a framed/personalized 'Agreement'
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A conversation's goal is achieved by the performance of a task.
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Adaptations Relating To Speech Acts:
Form (Revised) Visualizations_1 < --- > Investigate thoroughly in-to-it
Validate (Unverified) Expectations_2 < --- > Insights into a possible Solution
Evaluate a (Proposed) Solution_3 < --- > Resolve Concerns
Make (a) perceptual Inference(s) that (re)focuses (a) 'special' interest(s)_4
Constructively/Negatively reinforce that which (emotionally) is to be of value_5
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The purpose of Freedom of Speech should be To Liberate our Intelligence.






This paper starts from the basic biased attitudes in thinking, that humankind is subject to. Do not fall into these self-deceptions! As Lonergan says: "..the basic problem lies not in mistaken beliefs but in the mistaken believer.. If man's will matched the detachment and the unrestricted devotion of the pure desire to know, the problem of evil would not arise..."(INSIGHT, 1958, page 717). Since our course of social interaction, that we choose, may reflect (i) our adverse intentions, (ii) our misunderstandings, or (iii) our ineffectualness, which lead into guilt, fear, and shame, there should be no question, which we may have, that should be met with an indifference. This rejection of indifference is a rejection of arrogance, demanding from us that search for solutions that welcomes new ideas, and promotes enjoyable discussions that stimulate thoughts to work things out. (deBono's Thinking Course, 1985, page 147)

The Endeavers of the Higher Perspective:
i) Overcoming aversive behavior demands allowing our willingness:
... to find what is of value in another's perspective, and 'accurately' try to represent it;
... to alter those strategies that, in some way, turn (the situation) into someone's 'disadvantage', while searching deliberately for insights that offer another solution;
... and to explore possible 'perceptions' of various (perceived) aspects of the situation, picking-out possible 'objectives', and discussing 'all' possible consequences of the various schemes, thereby focusing (awareness) to search (for) our 'possible' concern(s).
ii) Overcoming misunderstandings depends on our dedication to understanding correctly.
iii) Overcoming ineffectualness leads to focusing and exploring (more) considerations.
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This Paper's Inner Construction:
i) Challenge delusions, deceits, and neglected concerns:
..# 4. Discover innovations that will transform this situation.
ii) The dedication of the pure desire of intelligence:
..# 1. As Detached: Considers and refines other views.
..# 2. As Disinterested: It is only interested in the results of an unbiased inquiry.
..# 3. As Unrestricted: Stimulates speculative curiosity.
iii) Develop greater consideration and objectivity:
..# 5. Search for and explore different approaches and solutions.
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INSIGHT: A Study of Human Understanding:
i) Page 471: "..development occurs along the directions in which it succeeds." Page 469: "..the higher system of intellectual development is primarily the higher integration, not of the man in whom the development occurs, but of the universe that he inspects."
ii) Page 352: "..at the root of cognitional process there is a cool, detached, disinterested desire to know and its range is unrestricted."
iii) Page 623: "As long as *we are* moving towards full self-possession [of every aspect of our being], the detached and disinterested desire to know tends to be in control."


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From deBono's Thinking Course, page 8: "..instead of just drifting from idea to idea, from emotion to emotion. An effective thinker is clear about what he is setting out to do.. At the end of his thinking he is able to discern just what progress he has made.. He is constructive rather than critical, and supposes that the purpose of his thinking is to reach a better understanding.. not to prove that he is smarter than someone else." Page 150: "There will always be something that has been achieved. It is a matter of being aware of it."

The detached, disinterested, unrestricted desire to know is the pure desire of the intellect:
# 1. As Detached: It considers and refines other views.
And is detached from imposing any prejudices, prepossessions, or passions preventing exploring other considerations.
# 2. As Disinterested: It is interested in finding the outcome of an unbiased inquiry.
And is disinterested in skewing that inquiry.
# 3. As Unrestricted: It stimulates speculative curiosity.
And is unrestricted in the focus of inquiry.
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The potency of the pure desire to know is existentially effective:
# 1. Enhances interpersonal communication into an inductive process that builds insight(s).
# 2. Experiments are questions that investigate the situation for the solution.
# 3. Speculates and assesses various possibilities.
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The pure desire of intelligence leads to objectivity:
# 1. Selfless inquiring to understand (the situation) correctly.
# 2. Verifies the 'speculated' (insight) by questioning and testing its working hypothesis.
# 3. Voluntarily (overcomes a personal bias by) being devoted to the discovery of further insights.
And challenges (1)delusions, (2)deceits, and (3)neglected concersns.

Emotional reactions, that divert further insight into the situation, can initiate substitute-formation (of an alternate representation) and symptom-formation (of detrimental and useless activity) which, by developing counter-positions, adapts the situation to being turned into someone's disadvantage.



BIBLIOGRAPHY

How To Solve It: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method / G. Polya / Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 1973 / ISBN 0-691-08097-6(HC); ISBN 0-691-02356-5(PBK).

Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning: Vol.I. Induction and Analogy in Mathematics / G. Polya / Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 1954 / L.C. Card 53-6388.

Insight: A Study of Human Understanding / Bernard J. F. Lonergabn S. J. / Philosophical Library, Inc., New York, 1958 / ISBN 0060652691.

De Bono's Thinking Course / Edward de Bono / Facts On File Publications, New York, 1985 / ISBN 0-8160-1380-2.

The Teaching Of Buddha / Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai / Kosaido Printing Co., Ltd., Tokyo, 1966.

Homemade Lightening: Creative Experiments in Electricity / R. A. Ford / McGraw-Hill, New York, 2002 / ISBN 0-07-137323-3.

Other People's Habits: How to Use Positive Reinforcement to Bring Out the Best in People Around You / Aubrey C. Daniels / McGraw-Hill, New York, 2001 / ISBN 0-07-135915-X(HC); ISBN 0-07-137374-8(PBK).

Introduction To Psychodynamics; A New Synthesis / Mardi J. Horowitz / Basic Books, Inc., New York, 1988 / ISBN 0-465-03561-2.

Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships / Eric Berne, M.D. / Ballantine Books, New York, 1964 / ISBN 0-345-41003-3.

Why Flip a Coin?: The Art and Science of Good Decisions / H. W. Lewis / John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1997 / ISBN 0-471-16597-2.



How To Solve It, page 33: "Isolate the principle parts of your problem. The hypothesis and the conclusion are the principle parts of a 'problem to prove'; the unknown, the data, and the conditions are the principle parts of a 'problem to find'. Go through the principle parts of your problem, consider them one by one.. in turn, consider them in various combinations, relating each detail to other details and each to the whole of the problem." Page 34-35: "Start from the consideration of the principle parts of your problem ... Emphasize different parts, examine different details, examine the same details repeatedly but in different ways, combine the details differently, approach them from different sides. Try to see some new meaning in each detail, some new interpretation of the whole... Try to recognize something familiar in what you examine, try to perceive something useful in what you recognize... Ideas are more or less complete. You are lucky if you have any idea at all... Perhaps you will be led astray by some of your ideas. Nevertheless you should be grateful for all new ideas, also for the lesser ones, also for the hazy ones, also for the supplementary ideas adding more precision to a hazy one, or attempting the correction of a less fortunate one. Even if you do not have any appreciable new ideas for a while you should be grateful if your conception of the problem becomes more complete or more coherent, more homogeneous or better balanced."


Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning: vol.I., page 55: "Induction results in adapting our mind to the facts. When we compare our ideas to the observations, there may be agreement or disagreement. If there is agreement, we feel more confident of our ideas; if there is disagreement, we modify our ideas. After repeated modification our ideas may fit the facts somewhat better. Our first ideas about any new subject are almost bound to be wrong, at least in part; the inductive process gives us a chance to correct them, to adapt them to reality... Adaptation of the mind may be more or less the same thing as adaptation of the language; at any rate, one goes hand in hand with the other. The progress of science is marked by the progress of terminology... Induction changed the terminology, clarified the concepts... the inductive clarification of concepts.. give a more precise meaning to the terms.. to render it [the theorem] strictly correct." Page v: "Strictly speaking, all our knowledge ... consists of conjectures... We secure our mathematical knowledge by demonstrative reasoning, but we support our conjectures by plausible reasoning. A mathematical proof is demonstrative reasoning, but the inductive evidence of the physicist, the circumstantial evidence of the lawyer, the documentary evidence of the historian, and the statistical evidence of the economist belong to plausible reasoning... Demonstrative reasoning is safe, beyond controversy, and final. Plausible reasoning is hazardous, controversial, and provisional. Demonstrative reasoning penetrates the sciences just as far as mathematics does, but it is in itself (as mathematics is in itself) incapable of yielding essentially new knowledge about the world around us. Anything new that we learn about the world involves plausible reasoning, which is the only kind of reasoning for which we care in everyday life." Page vi: "Finished mathematics presented in a finished form appears as purely demonstrative, consisting of proofs only. Yet mathematics in the making resembles any other human knowledge in the making. You have to guess a mathematical theorem before you prove it; you have to guess the idea of the proof before you carry through the details. You have to combine observations and follow analogies; you have to try and try again. The result of the mathematician's work is demonstrative reasoning, a proof; but the proof is discovered by plausible reasoning, by guessing."



Bernard Lonergan, in Insight: A Study of Human Understanding, distinguishes individual, group, dramatic, and general forms of bias. The web page at www.gprep.org/~tbonat/senior/lonerganbias.htm - 2003 - summarizes these biases, stating that "Group Bias is Individual Bias writ large. It is self-interest at the level of a particular group." Then from Insight, page 220, although Individual Bias has the "capacity to face issues squarely and think them through .. Egoism .. fails to pivot from the initial and preliminary motivation, provided by desires and fears, to the self-abnegation involved in allowing complete free play to intelligent inquiry." Page 220: "..the egoist refuses to put the still further question [found in objectivity] that would lead to a profound modification of his solution.." Page 221: "..the egoist [operates] not by sheer inadvertance but also by a conscious self-orientation that he devotes his energies to sizing up the social order .. evading its demands for proportionate contributions." Page 222: "As individual bias, so also group bias rests on an interference with the development of practical common sense. But while individual bias has to overcome normal intersubjective feeling, group bias finds itself supported by such feeling[s]." Page 221: "..the golden rule.. did not advocate identical behavior in significantly different situations .. [but] contended that the mere interchange of [the] individual .. would not by itself constitute a significant difference in concrete situations." Then on pages 599-600 he discuses the escapes from rational self-consciousness. (1)Avoiding unwanted intuition. (2)Rationalization by (a)misrepresentation or (b) explanatory interpretation. (3)Renunciation of moral responsibility. Page 600: "..moral renunciation .. is without the illusion generated by fleeing self-consciousness, [and] is without the deceit generated by rationalization. But .. is content [to disregard speculated obligations]." Pages 666-667 basic sin, moral evils, physical ills. Basic sin disregards further insight. Moral evils value the resulting perceptual illusions. Physical ills are those deficient solutions in the emerging social order. Pages 9, 174, 191, 236, 239-240, 292, 293, 419, 445, 457, 471, 476-477, 525, 620, 632, 635, 636, 637, 689, 691, 700, 706, 720 were also enlightening. Page 9-10: "..before we look for answers, we want them; such wanting is the pure question...the desire to understand." Page 174: "..teaching is the communication of insight." Page 191: "Dramatic Bias: Just as insight can be desired, so too it can be unwanted .. If prepossessions and prejudices notoriously vitiate theoretical investigations, much more easily can elementary passions bias understanding in practical and personal matters. To exclude an insight is also to exclude the further questions that would arise from it and the complementary insights that would carry it towards a rounded and balanced viewpoint." Page 217: "..there is a larger dialectic of community. Social events can be traced to the two principles of human intersubjectivity and practical common sense." Page 236: "By his intelligence he progresses, and by his bias he declines." Page 239: "Cosmopolis is above all politics .. needed to offset the tendencies of that and any other government to be short-sightedly practical." Furthermore, "..cosmopolis is not a busybody .. It does not waste its time and energy condemning the individual egoism that is in revolt against society and already condemned by society .. But it is very determined to prevent dominant groups from deluding mankind.." Page 240: "The old regime is depicted as monstrous; the new envisages itself as the immaculate embodiment of ideal human aspiration. Catchwords that carried the new group to power assume the status of unquestionable verities .. Inversely, ideas that merit attention are ignored unless they put on the trappings of the current fashion .. It is the business of cosmopolis to prevent the formation of the screening memories..." Page 292: "But the type of belief that is essential in this collaboration resembles that of the pupil who believes his teacher only that later he himself may understand and be able to judge for himself." Page 293: "..the practical further question is a further question that leads to the modification or revision of an insight; and the pragmatic criterion of success is the absence of the failure that would reveal the necesity of thinking things out afresh." Page 419: "..before one can pass judgement on any issue, one has to understand it .. the requisite understanding [is] to be estimated by.. that absence of [any practical] further.. questions." Page 445: "..[an] incomplete knowing heading towards [a more] fuller knowing..." Page 457: "..one can imagine as one pleases but one cannot .. be normal and see as one pleases." Page 471: "..man functions primarily in accord with the development of his perceptiveness..." Page 476-477: "..all development involves a tension between limitation and transcendence.. Genuineness is the admission of that tension into consciousness .. It confronts issues, inspects them, studies their many aspects..." Page 525: "..the obscurantist, the obtuse, and the merely routine mind may be expected always to be with us.. in the long run they are negligible; they can block but they cannot initiate; they can manipulate pressures .. they are indifferent to truth .. they are concerned only with the familiar, which they strive to maintain, and with the unfamiliar, which they strive to oppose.." Page 561: "Bad will makes truth unwelcome, and unwelcome truth tends to be overlooked .. consciousness has to slip into the intellectual pattern of experience and .. [the] desire to know has to be sufficiently dominant to keep .. complementing and correcting previous insights .. Bad will .. prevents one from initiating an inquiry or .. from prosecuting it earnestly and effectively .. the attainment of truth demands good will.." Page 564: "A universal viewpoint .. contains virtually the various ranges of possible alternatives of interpretation." Page 565: "..the universal viewpoint is concerned with the interpreter's capacity to grasp meanings; it would open the mind to ideas that do not lie on the surface and to views that diverge enormously from his own; it would enable him to find clues where otherwise he might look but would fail to see; it would equip him with a capacity to transport his thinking to the level and texture of another culture in another epoch...the universal viewpoint is an ordered totality of viewpoints." Page 611: "I am empirically conscious in as much I am experiencing, intellectually conscious in as much I am inquiring or formulating intelligently, rationally conscious in as much I am seeking to grasp the virtually unconditioned or judging on the basis of such a grasp. But I become rationally self-conscious inasmuch as I am concerned with reasons for my own acts, and this occurs when I scrutinize .. [my intentions] .. and investigate the motives of a possible course of action." Page 613: "..both decision and judgment are rational, for both deal with .. [what is] .. apprehendeed by insight, and both occur because of a reflective grasp of reasons." Page 615: "..judgment merely acknowledges an actuality that already exists; while decision confers actuality upon a course of action that otherwise is merely possible." Page 616: "..insights that reveal possible courses of action also reveal that they are not neccesities but mere possibilities in need of reflective evaluation." Page 620: "..intelligible solutions to .. concrete problems ..[are] .. subject to variation with variation of the problems." Page 620: "..natural laws are not to be determined by pure speculation but solely by an empirical method in which what is grasped by insight is mere hypothesis until confirmed by verification." Page 623: "..one mounts from empirical [experiences] to intellectual consciousness, from intellectual to rational consciousness, and from rational consciousness to rational self-consciousness. As long as one is moving towards full self-possession, the detached and disinterested desire to know tends to be in control. But once one is in the state of rational self-consciousness, then one's decisions are in control, for they set the objective of one's total activity and select the actions that are to lead to the goal." Page 632: "..if men are intelligent, reasonable, and willing, they do not have to be forced .. the solution has to take people just as they are. If it is to be a solution and not a mere suppression of the problem, it has to acknowledge and respect and work through man's intelligence, and reasonableness, and freedom..." Page 635: "..despite the imposing name, transcendence is the elementary matter of raising further questions." Page 636: "The immanent source of transcendence in man is his detached, disinterested, unrestricted desire to know. As it is the origin of all his questions, it is the origin of the radical, further questions that take him beyond the defined limits of particular issues .. in opposition to his attached and interested sensitivity and intersubjectivity .. the knowledge it yields demands of his will the endeaver to develop in willingness and so make his doing consistent with his knowing." Page 637: "The desire in question, then, is a desire to understand correctly. To affirm that the desire is unrestricted is not to affirm that man's understanding is unrestricted or that the correctness of his understanding is unrestricted. For the desire is prior to understanding and it is compatible with not understanding .. for inquiry is a manifestation of a desire to understand, and it occurs before one does understand." Page 638: "Man wants to understand completely .. so [that] the unrestricted desire to understand is the opposite of any and every partial obscurantism no matter how slight .. [and] is the demand that no question whatever is to be met arbitrarily.." Page 685: "..it is interference with that desire [to understand correctly] that is the root of all error." Page 689: "..inasmuch as the courses of action that men choose reflect either their ignorance or their bad will or their ineffectual self-control, there results the social surd." Page 691: "..there must be no illusions. One is not to define good will by its resemblance to one's own will...Will is good by its conformity to [the ascent of its] intelligence. It is good in the measure that .. it matches the pure desire .. in its incessant dedication to complete intelligibility." Page 694: "There can be a problem only if there is an [unknown] intelligibility [that is needed] to be grasped." Page 700: "..rational self-consciousness deplores .. its dramatic bias and its involvement in the individual, group, and general bias of common sense; it repents its flight from self-knowledge .. Such repentance is not a merely sensitive feeling of guilt. It is an act of good will following the insights of intelligence and the pronouncements of reasonableness." Page 701: "..intellect functions properly inasmuch as the detached and disinterested desire to know is dominant in cognitional operations." Page 701: "..since the act of will is an act of rational self-consciousness, it will .. take issue with conflicting tendencies and consideratons."  Page 706: "The deepening of individual understanding includes the exploration of many viewpoints." Page 717: "..the basic problem lies not in mistaken beliefs but in the mistaken believer [and his unwillingness to give up his biases] .. until his bias is attacked and extirpated, he will have little heart in applying an effacious method .. A critique of mistaken beliefs is a human contrivance, and a human contrivance cannot exorcize the problem of human evil. If man's will matched the detachement and the unrestricted devotion of the pure desire to know, the problem of evil would not arise .. The solution does exist and so no one can assure himself that its realization has not begun in him[self] .. his discovery and rejection of one mistaken belief can lead him on to the discovery and rejection of as many more as the God of truth demands of him." Page 720: "..man's entry into the new and higher collaboration .. will be some species of faith." Page 724: "..every solution is transcendent in the sense that it involves a new, higher integration, while every solution is religious inasmuch as it is constituted by a faith and hope and love that look primarily to God.." Page 727: "Imperfect faith can insist on believing to the neglect of the understanding that makes faith an effective factor in human living and human history.."



I filled in Lonergan's biases with de Bono's understanding insights from de Bono's Thinking Course. Mostly pages 4, 5, 8, 9, 21-22, 28, 30, 81, 88, 89, 105-107, 126-129, & pages 146-148. Pages 4-5: (1)"A highly intelligent person can construct a rational and well-argued case for virtually any point of view. The more coherent this support for a particular point of view the less the thinker sees any need actually to explore the situation. Such a person may then become trapped into a particular view simply because he can support it." (2)"Verbal fluency is often mistaken..for thinking. An intelligent person learns this and is tempted to substitute one for the other." (3)"The ego, self-image and peer status of a highly intelligent person are too often based on that intelligence. From this arises the need to be always right and clever and orthodox." (4)"The critical use of intelligence is always more immediately satisifying than the constructive use. To prove someone else wrong gives you instant achievement and superiority. To agree makes you seem superfluous and sycophant. To put forward an idea puts you at the mercy of those on whom you depend for evaluation of the idea..." (5)"Highly intelligent minds often seem to prefer the certainty of reactive thinking (solving puzzles, sorting data) where a mass of material is placed before them and they are asked to react to it... In projective thinking it is the thinker who has to create the context, the concepts, the objectives. The thinking has to be expansive and speculative..." (6)"The sheer physical quickness of the highly intelligent mind leads it to jump to conclusions from only a few signals. The slower mind has to wait longer and take in more signals and may reach a more appropriate conclusion." (7)"The highly intelligent mind seems to prefer -or is encouraged- to place a higher value on cleverness than on wisdom. This may be because cleverness is more demonstrable. It is also less dependent on experience..." Pages 8-9: "..define an effective thinker? Someone who is confident of his thinking. Not confident that he is going to be right or, indeed, that he is going to find an answer to a problem: but confident that he can turn on his thinking at will and deliberately focus it... Someone who is in control of his thinking instead of just drifting from idea to idea, from emotion to emotion. An effective thinker is clear about what he is setting out to do... He has both a clear focus and a broad view... He favors wisdom rather than cleverness... At the end of his thinking he is able to discern just what progress he has made... He is constructive rather than critical, and supposes that the purpose of thinking is to reach a better understanding, decision or course of action: not to prove that he is smarter than someone else. He appreciates an idea.. no matter in whose garden it may be growing. He treats arrogance as the major sin of thinking." Pages 21-22:"..the deliberate search for alternatives is an extremely important part of the skill of thinking because this also counteracts the natural tendency of mind.. toward certainty, security and arrogance... Certainty.. means that action can be taken. A group of alternatives means that no action can yet be taken... Alternatives also suggest confusion... As a patient, which would you prefer: a doctor who rushed in, came to a rapid diagnosis based on his considerable experience, insisted arrogantly on that diagnosis and treated you with immense confidence; or a doctor who exanined you carefully, generated as many possible altermatives as he could, checked these out with tests, finally came to a diagnosis and treated you accordingly (still keeping his mind open to a change in diagnosis). In practice you might actually prefer the first doctor with his great confidence... however.. the great confidence of the first doctor would equally apply when he was making a terrible mistake." ** Page 25: "When we actually set out to find alternatives it is not all that difficult to find some (it may be difficult to find many and almost impossible to find all of them). The real difficulty is to set out to look for alternatives in the first place." Page 28: "In practice in science, we stay with one hypothesis until we can reject it...The falacy with this approach is that the existing hypothesis determines our perceptions and the sort of evidence that we look for... change the idiom. Instead of just holding the best hypothesis.. spend a lot of time generating alternative ones - not in order to reject them in favor of the best one but in order to allow us to look at things more broadly." * Page 30: Defining the problem. "The best definition of a problem can only be reached by finding the solution then working backwards... [until then] look for alternative definitions of the problem...[next] generate a number of different approaches instead of just searching for the best one... Finally, when we have an adequate solutiion to a problem, we can go beyond the adequate and search for different solutions." ** Page 81: "An experiment is a question that we ask of the environment." * Page 88: "..criticism.. is one of the cheapest forms of thinking... you can criticize anything.. by just choosing a frame different from what you see... you would just have shifted your frame of expectation.." * Page 89: "'Exlectics'.. has to do with map reading ..[and] creative design." Be constructive "..seek to 'lead out' or 'pull out' of the situation what is of value -no matter on which side it is to be found." Page 90: "EBS.. Examine Both Sides .. The exploration is neutral.. explore [and present] both sides in such a way that .. you would be unable to tell which point of view was really favored .. examining the territory [hopefully] for a constructive purpose." * Page 93-95: Logic-bubbles: "If someone does not agree with you or does not do what you think he ought to do there are several possible attitudes. He is stupid. He is cantankerous. He is obstinate. There is, however, an alternative attitude: He is highly intelligent and acting intelligently within his own logic-bubble. And his logic-bubble happens to be different from yours... a logic-bubble is that bubble of perception within which a person is acting. The bubble includes perception of circumstance, structure, context and relationships. Too often we put intelligent people into certain situations and then complain when they act intelligently. For instance, let us look at innovation in any type of large bureaucracy...When it comes to appointing the head of a department a 'sound' man is to be preferred over an 'idea' man.. innovation is not intelligent behavior--but survival is. So one can hardly blame a person for acting logically within that particular logic-bubble.... It is probably quite far from the truth that everyone is acting very logically within his or her logic-bubble. But as a practical way of looking at things the method has the merit of directing attention not to the stupidity of the person (which is difficult to alter) but to the circumstances (which are easier to alter) in which the behavior is quite logical. The logic-bubble includes both the actual circumstances surrounding a person and also his 'perception' of the situation.... motivation depends on the logic-bubble of those who are to be motivated, not on the logic-bubble of management. The same is true for change. The person suggesting the change is convinced of its value, but the people who are going to have to carry through the change have their own logic-bubbles and change usually means risk and hassle and a change in status." * Page 97: Looking for Other People's Views "..does not mean putting into the mouths of all parties sane and rational arguments of the sort one might hold oneself. Nor does it mean putting into their mouths complaints and irrationality in order to condemn their point of view. It means objectively trying to look at the world from that point of view--and perhaps adding what is thought to be the actual point of view. In other words it is a blend between the 'position' point of view and the 'actual' point of view (for example as a reporter might find it)." * Page 105-106: "..emotion can interact with perception... In the first situation.. emotion is present.. before the particular situation is encountered.. before the details of the situation have been seen... The second situation is by far the most usual.. we examine the situation briefly. We recognize some pattern. That switches on our emotion. From then on our further perception is narrowed and channeled by that emotion... The initial perception has triggered our feelings, which then determine our actions. In the third situation we have the ideal. There is a broad and calm exploration of the situation and in the end emotions come in to make the final decision and choose the course of action. Explore first.. Then make a choice or decision. This choice may be based on survival, ego-needs, achievement, or self-interest of any sort. These are all emotionally based." ** Page 107: "Before the [thinking] lessons the youngsters had been inclined to react with a violent cliche... After the thinking lessons they had developed some pride in themselves as 'thinkers.' There was now a thinking pause instead of a rush to reaction. There was more consideration and more objectivity to the thinking... It is possible for thinking to alter feelings--especially the perceptual type of thinking which allows us to see things in a different way." * Page 115: "We are only called to make decisions when an analysis of information is insufficient.. when we have to speculate or guess or apply human values and emotions." Page 115-117: "Making decisions is always a practical matter... the value of the decision can only be checked in the future--after the decision has been made... If the decision is put off will the matter resolve itself or will an opportunity be lost?.. When will the effects of the decision become apparent... Is it an adjustment or change in direction... Is it a decision to stop doing something or to start... Is it irrevocable or can it be reversed." ** Page 117: "When a decision is difficult to make it is always worth going back to try to generate further alternatives." Page 117: "There are some obvious alternatives and some that have to be discovered--or designed--by creative thought..." * Page: 117: "Priorities may sometimes appear as values and sometimes as subobjectives (things that one wants to achieve)." ** Page 126: A decision-making "matrix lists all the priorities and values and considerations that need to go into the decision... They are all laid out.. and each alternative is examined to see which qualities it possesses... It is rather dangerous simply to take the alternative with the most qualities because the qualities are not of equal importance. The possession of two lesser qualities is not more important than the possession of a major quality.." Page 127: "In the end the decision, like all decisions, will be made emotionally. But the picture is now clearer." Page 126: "The decision is now a rational one..." * Pages 133-134: "There are three traditional ways of doing things... The first way.. We set up a groove or channel.. to follow.. towards the target. This is equivalent to setting up procedures and routines - a very effective method, even if it lacks flexibility. The second method.. is goal-directed behavior or management by objectives. In order to operate, it needs a 'higher caliber' of person, than the first method but is much more flexible since you can start from anywhere and the target can easily be changed. The third method.. we proceed along without a real objective [although with feelings of inspiration] and pretend [through and by the manipulation of sentiments] that where we are is where we set out to reach." * Page 135: "AGO stands for Aims, Goals and Objectives." 'Doing an AGO' stands for an attention-directing practice: Practice setting up objectives (and subobjectives) and practice picking out the objectives that others seem to have. * Page 138: "..strategy is the overall intention and way of behaving which itself guides the moment-to-moment movement or tactics." * Page 146: "A thinker should be able to turn on his thinking at will. A thinker should be able to direct his thinking to any subject or any aspect of a subject... Untrained thinking is usually of the point-to-point variety, drifting along from idea to idea.. There is room for this in thinking, especially in the creative aspects, but this hopeful drifting should not become the dominant idiom.. In untrained thinking some idea triggers an emotion which in turn determines the way something is looked at, and then thinking just follows this path without any genuine exploration of the subject... [de Bono's] thinking lessons provide a means for being focused in thinking.. It is like giving a definite instruction to oneself..." ** Page 147: "Any skill is better if it is done with confidence.. There is, however, a big difference between being confident and being arrogant. To be sure that you are right, to be sure that your thinking is better than anyone else's, to be sure that there can be no other alternatives, are all aspects of arrogance... arrogance is the major sin of thinking--becanse it kills thinking... A confident thinker does not have to prove himself right and the other person wrong. He or she sees the thinking as an operating skill, not as ego-achievement. A confident thinker is willing to listen to others. He is willing to improve his thinking by acquiring a new idea or a new way of looking at things. A confident thinker is willing to set out to think about something. He or she is able to acknowledge that an answer has not been found..[And] to make mistakes and learn from them... If we only use thinking only when we have insoluble problems then thinking is not likely to become an enjoyable skill. Enjoying thinking.. is more a matter of being able to think about differnt things: having ideas, working things out, engaging in a 'thinking' type discussion. There are boring type dicussions in which each party is trying to put across a particular point of view. There are enjoyable discussions in which each party is exploring the subject--and at the end of such a discussion both parties have new ideas and stimulated thoughts." Page 150: "There will always be something that has been achieved. It is a matter of being aware of it."
"AUTHOR'S NOTE: This book is more concerned with the sort of thinking that makes for wisdom rather than the sort that makes for cleverness. If you become wise it is not so difficult to become clever as well. But if you start out by being clever you may have little chance of ever becoming wise...Wisdom is like a wide-angle camera lens. Cleverness is like a sharp-focus lens."


The Teaching Of Buddha, pages 81, on Human Defilements: "The first is the passion for analysis and discussion by which people become confused in judgment. The second is the passion for emotional experience by which people's values become confused." Page 82: "Greed rises from wrong ideas of satisfaction; anger rises from wrong ideas concerning the state of one's affairs and surroundings; foolishness rises from the inability to judge what correct conduct is." Page 86: "Greed, anger, foolishness and the infatuations of egoism..originate within the mind and infect it..." Page 87: "..all derive from foolishness." Page 180: "Faith has three significant aspects: repentance, a rejoicing and sincere respect for the virtues of others, and a grateful acceptance of Buddha's appearance." Page 13: "..the true Buddha is not a human body: - it is Enlightenment. A human body must die, but the Wisdom of Enlightenment will exist forever..." Page 73: "If the accumulation of false beliefs [or bias] is cleared away, Enlightenment will appear. But, strange enough, when people attain Enlightenment, they will realize that without [the] false beliefs there could be no Enlightenment." Pages 50-51: "It is from ignorance and greed that the world of delusion is born, and all the vast complexity of co-ordinating causes and conditions exists within the mind and nowhere else.. An unenlightened life rises from a mind that is bewildered by its own world of delusion. If we learn that there is no world of delusion outside the mind, the bewildered mind becomes clear; and because we cease to create impure surroundings, we attain Enlightenment." Page 134: "Bad men never appreciate kindness shown them, but wise men appreciate and are grateful. [And] try to express their appreciation and gratitude by some return of kindness.."



Chapter 21, in Ford's book Homemade Lightening, is about intuition and insight.
Intelligence gets into the situation and its dynamics by continuously experimenting with it. What we come to know when we are in-to-it (intuits) gives us the inner experience to reach a solution. Page 231: "By visualization ..[is meant].. that ability to form models in thought..." Page 232: "..visualize the principle under consideration..." Page 231: "Generally, mathematics should be used to find exact solutions only after we have diligently developed working mental models to explain phenomena." Page 231: "The three main elements that are important in creative thinking are: visualization, intuition, and qualitative anatomy." Page 232-233: A 'qualitative anatomy' is the comprehensive resolution of a reality into its characterizing perceived qualities. "..this tool becomes very helpful for assessing the value of both objects and abstract concepts, such as beauty or work." Page 233: "..a 'higher' expression ..include[s] more qualities..." Page 231: "..look for lasting solutions...think through solutions without creating new problems..."



Daniels' pages 110-113 in Other People's Habits were most helpful. Specify and react to the targeted behavior. "..the most difficult part has always been determining the specific behavior that would improve the situation...It is helpful to identify what we don't want or don't like only to the extent that it leads us to identify the behavior we do find desirable...You must be specific when identifying the behavior you find desirable...to solve a behavioral problem, people must do something active, not inactive...If you know what you want, you will be more likely to reinforce it when you see it...If you increase a desirable behavior, the problem behavior often disappears...crowding it out.." Page 113: "..pinpoint..behaviors that need to be changed...understand what the problem behaviors are and what needs to be done to change them...Most relationship problems result from the inability to specify a problem behavior and the appropriate ones that should take its place. Remember, if you can't specify the problem behaviorally, you can't see appropriate behaviors when they happen. And if you don't know when they are happening, you can't reinforce them." Page 19: "To change the behavior of those around you, you must change what you do. By changing what you do, you change the environment for those around you, which in turn changes them."
R+Memo: Page 23: "Since you change people every day make sure you change them for the better." Pages 20-21: "Making mistakes in our dealings with others is not a problem; continuing to make the same mistake over and over is the problem." Page 22: "If the behavior results in no reinforcement or results in punishment, negative feelings will follow." Pages 22-23: "..for many people the manner in which they try to change behavior usually doesn't solve problems...in too many cases attempts to solve problems actually create new ones." Page 27: "..common sense is not a good guide...It is merely the product of unanalyzed experience, much of which is misleading." Page 30: "..try one thing, track it, evaluate its success under several conditions or situations, and then try something else. In this way...find out what worked...take a systematic approach to solving problems with people." Pages 32-34: "..the most common way people try to influence the behavior of others is to try to convince them of the need to change. Convincing comes in many forms but usually boils down to some form of telling others of their need to change, telling them what to change, telling them how to change, and telling them the consequences of changing or not changing. We suggest, educate, persuade, communicate, advise, beg, plead, counsel, and warn...telling usually has very little long-term impact...When we tell people to cahnge and they don't, we usually resort to telling them again, but the second time we tell them more frequently or with more intensity...trying the same thing harder... telling is not reliable or efficient in terms of long-term, meaningful behavior change." Page 35: "it is always consequences that cause behavior to happen and recur." Page 37: "If all that happens when you ask the first time is that you tell them again, the words come to have little meaning...However, if you tell them one time and then make certain they do what you ask without further comment, they will soon respond the first time. Antecedents become effective at producing desired behavior only when they are a signal for a predictable consequence...rather than looking at what triggered the behavior, you should look at the consequence, or what happened after the behavior. The consequence will tell you why a behavior is or is not occuring." Pages 37-38: "Consequences occur for every behavior...They either strengthen a behavior (increase its probability) or weaken it (decrease its probability)...If a behavior occurs more often than usual, it is being strengthened by its consequences. If it occurs less often than usual, it is being weakened by its consequences." Pages 38-39: "When you get consequences, your behavior changes. When you don't get them, your behavior changes...Behavioral consequences include things as unobservable as what you say to yourself,as common as money, and as simple as a smile. A pat on the back, a note on one's performance, a thank you, an offer to help, and feedback on one's accomplishments can all have a poositive and dramatic impact on performance and morale under the right circumstances. Under the wrong circumstances, these things can have the opposite effect." Pages 39-41: "..let us turn our attention to the four basic behavioral consequences...Two of them--positive and negative reinforcers--increase behavior, and two--punishers and penalties--decrease it. In other words, if you want more of a behavior, you can use positive and negative reinforcers. If you want less of a behavior, you can use punishers or penalties...three of the four affect the performer negatively. Only positive reinforcement affects the performer positively. However, all are useful...There is a time to use positive reinforcement as well as a time to use the other three consequences. The trick is knowing which one to deliver when and recognizing that you may be delivering the wrong one inadvertently...behavior that we want to occur less often frequently receives a consequence that strengthens it and behavior that we want to occur more often frequently receives consequences that weaken it." Page 41: "People who have a high correlation between what they say [in promise] and do [as a consequence] are trusted. People who don't are not." Page 42: "People tend to copy the behavior of those they see being reinforced in ways they would like to [also] be reinforced." Page 43: "Antecedents set the stage for a behavior to occur one time. Consequences get it to occur agin and again." Page44: "..negative consequences are indicated in some circumstances, but they never solve a problem by themselves...Only positive reinforcement offers a permanent solution to the problem of behavior change. At best negative reinforcement, punishment, and penalty only get you in position to solve a problem."
Negative Reinforcement: Pages 45-47: "..with negative reinforcement, people perform only to the level necessary to avoid some kind of unpleasantness. They never reach optimum levels of performance or give all of their discretionary effort. Negative reinforcement, when used to influence behavior, is realy a matter of managing through the use of threat or fear. The threat may be overt or implied...It may be as ..subtle as the fear that if you don't do something, you won't be liked or will disappoint someone. Peer pressure is a common form of negative reinforcement. Negative reinforcement ..which produces compliance...also produces an environment filled with frowns, hard feelings, and lackluster performance...There are numerous things we do every day where the minimum response is enough...and ..all that is needed...Thus, if you want only a minimum response, negative reinforcement will work. However...A behavior controlled by negative reinforcers will stop when the fear or threat of punishment is removed...Taking medicine is a behavior managed by negative reinforcement. When the pain or other symptoms go away, taking medicine stops even though the illness may not have been cured...It has been said [about job performance] in business many times, 'I don't care if they like it. I just want them to do it.' This kind of management is expensive because it requires increased supervision or dependence on rules and policies...Stress at work is rarely caused by the work itself but results primarily from performing under negative reinforcement, punishment, or pemalty conditions. If you want to decrease stress, quit using negative reinforcement and punishment to manage people. Positive reinforcement is the best antidote for stress...[If] the staff [is] stressed out and burned out, they don't talk about the job functions; they talk about management or coworkers who perform poorly...What makes the difference is not the job; it's what happens to them when they do the job...Since negative reinforcement occurs when you escape or avoid something, all you have to do to create negative reinforcement is provide a situation in which people will work to avoid a consequence they don't want. You just need to frighten people from time to time. It doesn't take much effort to use guilt, duty, obligation, or fear of disapproval to get things done...The [hidden] cost is counted in terms of poor to mediocre performance...and by stressful relationships..."
Punishment: Pages 47-48: "As a parent and a boss, with strangers and with friends...there are occasions when if I care for the person, I must do something to stop behavior that is detrimental to that person in the long run even though it may involve some short-term loss of positive reinforcement for them and me. Not doing something...is a way of saying, 'I don't care about your long-term happiness." Page 48: "..keep in mind that the word punish as it is used here has a different meaning than it does in the vernacular...the common use of othe word implies action on the part fo the one doing the punishing...In the context of this book, the term punishment is used to describe a behavioral consequence delivered [subsequently] after a behavior that reduces its frequency." Page 49: "At best punishment stops problem behavior. Just stopping a behavior solves few problems because...stopping one behavior will cause another behavior to take its place...Because there are practically always more ways to do something wrong than to do it right, by punishing the wrong behavior without reinforcing a constructive alternative, you are likely to get another problem behavior." Page 51: "..punishing one behavior may generalize to other similar behaviors... PUNISHMENT, LIKE POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT, IS HIGHLY INDIVIDUAL... [What may be] punishing to some, may be highly reinforcing to others." Pages 51-52: "Because punishment often gets an immediate response from the person being punished, it provides positive reinforcement for the person doing the punishing...Remember any behavior that gets you what what you want immediately is very reinforcing to you. This explains the behavior of bullies and those who engage in domestic abuse...[And] is certainly one of the reasons punishment is as common as it is in this society...The best way to avoid these problems is to focus on positively reinforcing behavior that is incompatible with the behavior you don't want. If punishment is indicated, be sure to positively reinforce immediately any change for the better."
Penalty: Page 52: "Penalty is often difficult to distinguish from punishment...they both reduce behavior. However...Penalty occurs when you lose something you have that you care about...The law uses penalty as a primary way to stop behavior. Sanctions operate as behavioral penalties. Fines are common for minor violations of the law, and depriving people of their freedom is used for more serious violations. In all these situations, your behavior causes something to be taken from you." Page 53: "Penalty has all the drawbacks of punishment." And "..there is an additional aspect...Because you are losing what you have, what happpens when you have nothing more to lose?...If you find yourself using penalties more and more, you are probably in a counterproductive situation."
Page 53: "Now that you have a fundamental understanding of negative reinforcement, punishers, and pemalties, at least three things should be clear. First, they are involved in all normal transactions, at least over time. Second, they are difficult to use effectively. Third, they never solve a problem by themselves. If they work to stop an undesirable behavior, the most effective way to move forward is to find a desirable alternative to positively reinforce." Page 54: "Negative consequences never solve a problem by themselves."
Positive Reinforcement: Page 55: "Positive reinforcement is the most effective way to change any behavior--your own or someone else's...People enjoy receiving it, and it gives the best results ..producing cooperation, creativety, and high productivity...it changes behavior with less resk of creating anger, hard feelings, and negative fallout." Pages 55-56: "A positive reinforcer is any consequence that follows a behavior and results in an increase in that behavior...What you do to someone does not define positive reinforcement; it is defined by what happens to the person's behavior after you do it...Positive reinforcement always works. That is it always increases behavior. If the behavior does not increase after an attempt at reinforcement, the attempt wasn't a reinforcer or wasn't delivered correctly. Positive reinforcement occurs every time you ..produce.. an effect in your environment that you like." Page 57: "Positive reinforcement can unintentionally increase an undesired behavior." Page 58: "Conversely, we sometimes do things we think are reinforcers and discover later that they were actuallly punishers." Pages 60-61: MEANING...RESIDES IN CONSEQUENCES...It is [the] experiencing ..the suspense of a mystery, the romanticism of a love story, the adventure of learning aabout new places, or learning how and why things work.. that provides the actual reinforcement...Find how people 'waste their time' and you will ..discover.. what is reinforceing to them." Page 62: "..STOPPING BEHAVIOR...Behaviors that don't work for us, that is, don't get us what we want, eventually stop...Behaviors that work are strengthened, those that don't are weakened." Page 64: "..emotional behavior...is a natural response to the loss of reinforcement and should be expected. Grief is a response to the loss of reinforcement. The cure for grief is to find other sources of reinforcement...get them to be active so they are likely to find new sources of reinforcement." Page 67: "Most people ..[think].. that they have a positive effect on others because their motives and intentions are positive. As you will discover, being positive and using positive reinforcement effectively are different things." Page 70: "There is...no one thing to do that will be reinforcing to every one." Page 72: "If you take the time to learn another person's reinforcers, that person probably will call you 'friend.' Any time you make an effort to get to know what a person wants, needs, and values, you will gain that person's trust, respect, and loyalty." Page 74: "EXPERIMENT...most people are reinforced by another person's attempt to reinforce something they've done or recognize something they've achieved..."



Page 37: "Motives become schemas as the self develops." By 'Describe the intent' please refer to Horowitz's role-relationship model in Introduction To Psychodynamics. Page 42 describes this three part model: "A role-relationship model is a mental schematization of the relative characteristics of self and other, and a sort of script of what each may do to the other in a sequence of interactions. This sequence of expected transaction may begin with a wish of the self to express feelings or to act in relation to another person; the next element in such a script may be the expected responses of the other; and the third, the expected reactions of the self." Page 43: "Once a role-relationship model is set in motion as an organizer of a state of mind, one tends to act according to the sequences contained within its script and to expect response from the other accordingly...at the onset of a new encounter, one may 'size up' the other person and the current situation by applying different role-relationship models to both. This process proceeds unconsciously, and only the schema with the 'best fit' to the situation may become a working model of the relationship." ** Page 215: "..people [even] can.. be actively bad: that is, they can manipulate and exploit [another].." Page 39: "..we each have a repertoire or self-roles and may, in different states of mind, experience any one of several self-concepts." Page 44: "A person's repertoire of self-schemas and role-relationship models plays a part in determining his or her character traits, symptoms, career choice, and selection of friends and spouse."
Page 220-228: The Obsessional Style is characterized by rigidity of thought at the expense of feeling. Life is regimented into routines that emphasize perfection with a sharp focus on details, while missing the central meaning. This limits adaptive ways to reach solutions to dilemmas and conflicts, glossing over the issues with fast, bright talking.
*Instead, make conscious efforts to represent the heart of a theme.
Page 212-219: The Histrionic Style is characterized by dramatic shifts in the state of mind, which, in turn, inhibits processing information about the wishes that have motivated the behavior. A deliberate awareness of motives, intentions, and any planned limits of how to respond to others, are largely missing; only jumbles of partial fantasies reach consciousness.
*Clarify and label feelings. Repeating what was said, without passing judgement, increases tolerance for personal emotions.
Page 212: "The conscious intention to take risks can override the unconscious intention to 'play it safe.' The conscious intention to be cautious and realistic can override unconscious impulses toward immediate gratification. Characteristic defensive styles can be modified by repetition of such conscious efforts...convince one[self by experience] that unconsciously expected dangers are not excessively threatening." Page 211: "..the person who becomes aware of unconscious avoidance and distortion can make new alternative choices." Page 153-154: "New modes of reaction can be decided upon and then practiced with conscious care, until.. one may act with less active awareness.. [and] by unconscious habit." Page 154: "Consciousness heightens a sense of self as an agent of initiatives.. [and] as a subject having enduring mindfulness over time. Self-monitoring is also heightened by conscious awareness, and decisions may be made about what of consciousness to express to others and what to conceal (G. Mandler 1975, 1985; Ekman 1984)." Page 183: "Nevertheless, intentions and action plans are also influenced by unconsciously made choices and by contagion from the emotions and purposes of others." Page 91: "Deprivation of interpersonal feedback reduces one's ability to test the reality of a working model." The mind usually fills in any gaps in external input.
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Page 154: Images and words have different organizing properties.
Page 196-197: "REGULATION OF MENTAL SET...Some kind of choice, consciously and unconsciously made, determines which conceptual area to contemplate..[and]..whether conscious representation will be a blend of words, pictures, or enactions, or whether one mode will predominate. The process of choosing a theme and the modes for contemplating it can have several outcomes...One of these outcomes is adaptive regulation...Since a person in threatening circumstances could become exhausted or confused by thinking continuously about the threat, it might be more adaptive to have usefully paced periods of thinking and not thinking about it, which would provide moments of needed rest. On the other hand.. total avoidance of the conceptual area might mean the person was unprepared to handle relevant iife issues. In such defensive regulation, while the inhibition of the topic reduces emotional response, it does not succeed as well as modulated use of this [defensive] control.. Finally, the person may be unable adequately to use this kind of control. We might then expect states of mind marked by daze, confusion, or chaotic jumbles of emotion. We would judge these to be signs of dysregulation: that is, that the person was succumbing to stress...The adaptive regulation outcomes are marked by flexibility, including use of both reality-based and fantasy-based modes of thinking; the defensive regulatory outcomes are marked by rigidity; the dysregulatory outcomes are marked by loss of [direction and] volition."



Games People Play, page 23: "In a given individual, a certain set of behavior patterns corresponds to one state of mind, while another set is related to a different psychic attitude, often inconsistent with the first.. This repertoire can be sorted into the following categories: (1) ego states which resemble those of parental figures, (2) ego states which are autonomously directed toward objective appraisal of reality, and (3) those which represent archaic relics.. [from] childhood.. Technically these are called, respectively, exteropsychic, neopsychic, and archaeopsychic ego states." Page 48: "A game is.. a recurring set of transactions ..superficially plausible, with a concealed motivation ..." Pages 48-49: "An operation is a simple transaction or set of transactions undertaken for a specific, stated purpose. If.. it.. turns it in some way to the disadvantage of the giver, that is a game. Superficially then, a game looks like a set of operations ..[that] were really maneuvers, not honest requests but moves in the game." Page 48: "Every game, on the other hand, is basically dishonest, and the outcome has a dramatic, as distinct from merely exciting, quality." Page 53: "Hopefulness, enthusiasm, or a lively interest in one's surroundings is the opposite of depression; laughter is the opposite of despair." Page 49: "Because of their dynamic qualities, games are easy to distinguish from mere static attitudes, which arise from taking a position." Page 71: "A game is played from a position, but a position or its corresponding attitude is not a game." Page xii: "The person who initiates a game does so [by discounting aspects of the situation's realities]." Ultimately, this discounting detracts from realizing one's autonomy.
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Pages 178-181: Awareness + Intimacy + Spontaneity => personal Autonomy.
# An open Awareness is the capacity of seeing and hearing anew, then reflecting and thinking independently, not just in the way of any one('s) programming.
# Intimacy is characterized by candid unscripted responses, reflecting genuineness in dealing with one's concerns; whereas, seductions 'one-sided [delusion of] intimacy' is characterized by a well-guarded pretense of reciprocation [that discounts one's values].
# Spontaneity, and liberation from compulsiveness, means an awareness of options and the freedom [that takes the responsibility] to experiment with other solutions.
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The 'natural-driver': Exhibits a skilled natural ability; being dynamically at one with his craft. This is "..formally an 'Adult' pastime from which his 'Child' and 'Parent' may also derive satisfaction."
The jerk and the prig: Preoccupied with [the problem of] how it is going to look; oblivious to everything but this problem.
The sulk: Welcomes [the victimizing] injustices and blemishes; sustains their contributions.


Why Flip a Coin?, page 188: "The word bias has gotten a bad name, but all it means is a leaning in one direction. The leaning may or may not be justified by other considerations."



OTHER RESOURCES

The Roots of Sound Rational Thinking:
www.plusroot.com/essays/005_Thesis.html - 2005
see in 'Peace, Truth and The American Way': "..if we are to have peace in the world we need a world-wide involvement to honestly encourage people to use and have confidence in their own ability to use right reason .. call it commonsense."
see in 'Thesis Essay': "Root verities are good enough answers to questions about thinking. They do not create problems because they are solutions."
see (Non Totalitarian) in 'Totalitarian Thinking': "All affirmative philosophies enjoin a speculative stance and are fundamentally non totalitarian. They maintain a provisional quality that recognizes human limitations. They aim to clarify understanding, seek impartial truth; use right reason, play fair and make improvements."
and further in 'Totalitarian Thinking': "Antithetical thinking tends toward a win/lose, totalitarian mentality. In contrast, affirmative thinking tends toward a win/win improvement mentality... [seeking] answers adequate for the occasion."

http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/overconfidence_barrier.htm - 2004
Overconfidence: "When making a judgment, stop to consider the reasons why you may be wrong. Practice this. Before long, your confidence will more closely match the accurancy of your decisions."
Selective Pereception: "We will tend to perceive things according to our beliefs more than as they really are, and react accordingly."

Six common problem solving errors and their resolution:
http://cognitron.umd.edu/psyc443/s1996/m44301/kalt.html - 2004
1. Confirmation Bias: Be intelligent...create challenging situations.
2. Representativeness Heuristic: Be reasonable...conceive of all possible consequences.
For in this example, suppose 1>p>q>0, where p = feminist movement, and q = bank teller. Remember that 1 = a 100% likelihood.
And, q(1>p>0) => q>qp>0.
So, the likelihood of 'q', being a bank teller, is greater than the likelihood of 'qp', being both a bank teller and being active in the feminist movement, even though being active in the feminist movement is more likely than being a bank teller.
3. Using Useless Information: Welcome enlightenment...focus to resolve the concern.
4. Gambler's Fallacy: Welcome enlightenment...investigate the situation's dynamics (for a biased outcome).
5. Barnum Effect: Be expansive and speculative...broader inquiry should lead to wiser decisions.
6. Overconfidence Phenomenon: Broader inquiry should lead to further insights and wiser decisions...do not become trapped into a particular view in the effort to support it.

The Stephen Karpman Drama Triangle: A tool to analyze relationship problems.
The Three Faces of Victim: www.lynneforrest.com/articles/fov.html - rev 2008
"I believe that every dysfunctional interaction, in relationship with other or [(internally) with] self, takes place on the Drama Triangle. But until we become conscious of these [dysfunctioning] dynamics, we cannot transform them .. Once we're [ensnared] on the triangle, we automatically rotate through all the positions, going completely around the triangle, sometimes in a matter of minutes, or even seconds, many times every day."
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The three ego-centering, wish-fulfilling, and emotionally-biasing (and rewarded-?) roles of the Drama Triangle, that we may be participating in, are Persecutor, Rescuer, and Victim:
# Being right(eous), 'Persecutors' impose a (re)personalized program(ming) rightly on another with innocence and blamelessness; when perceiving a threat of 'mistreatment', they vigilantly 'struggle' for (their) protection [- from 'this' perceived situation?].
# Being 'needed', 'Rescuers' will try to 'fix' the situation and 'save' someone, having seemingly all the right *answers [- for satisfying what objective?].
# Being not adequate, 'Victims' act weak and ineffectual, thinking they do not properly govern themselves [- unless focused on the 'right' strategy, for its consequence(s)?].
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"Remember that just because we believe these [biased] stories, [that] does not make them true. But when we do believe them, we will act in ways that make them true! .. Getting off the triangle is not something we do once and for all. We get on and off all the time.. It's a process, not a final destination." "Whenever we fail to take [clarifying] responsibility, for ourselves, we end up on the triangle." By addressing those distortions, that we discover, is what can bring us to realize a transformation. We can find these, and our truth, by following our inner drama to those [(coercive) sentiments] that keep us on the drama triangle. Unhealthy schemes must be challenged, so as to transform our lives.

T A Study Notes: Transactional Analysis is a theory of personality, and a systematic psychotherapy.
web.ionsys.com/~remedy/Transactional%20Analysis.htm - 2006
"Discounts are an internal mechanism by which people minimize or maximize an aspect of.. the situation.. Discounting involves thinking which is [being] inconsistent, or distorts reality [by skewing perceptions].. Games and Rackets start with, and are maintained by, discounts, therefore if you stop the discount, you stop the Game or the Racket." Discounts are distorting perceptions of the Stimulus, the Problem, and the Options.
Some Manifestations of Discounting are:
# "Ulterior ['(defining)'] transactions [to (re)adjust behavior (and influence attitudes)]."
# "Behavior [supporting those values formed] in a position within the Drama Triangle."
# "Passive behaviors.. may have much energy, but.. never [really] solve the problem!"

Errors in thinking leading to cognitive distortion:
www.mentalhelp.net/psyhelp/chap14/chap14q.htm

Methods for changing ourselves:
www.mentalhelp.net/psyhelp/chap14/chap14.htm

Psychological Arts:
www.psycharts.com



EPILOGUE

Perceptual illusions can be constructed and, with the aid of psychological conditioning, they will be accepted without question.

It should be the duty of our courts to realize, as Lonergan points out on page 690, that "Without an unbiased judge the truth would not be reached." Our judicial system should insist on dispelling each bias in thinking and furthering the understanding that comes from a broader perspective.

I should like to quote Bernard Lonergan's observation into our court system. This quote is about something our legal system seems to overlook. Something our court system does not attend to. I believe this insight could make an excellent constitutional ammendment, leading politics towards the ideals of Lonergan's Cosmopolis. But I can not relocate this paragraph. I would deeply appreciate anyone who can help me relocate this single paragraph.

People will not voluntarily put aside their biases without being led.

Brian.


My email:
brianthies@aaahawk.com

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